Being in love with the art of Matte Painting, I collected these tutorials over one year from numerous onlineresources and eventually compiled them into this document. Originally intended for personal use only, I thought
that maybe some people out there might be interested too, so I deceided to relase them to the public. No big thing,
and defenitely nothing new – I just gathered these tutorials to have them all in one place. And if any – or all – of
these tutorials happen to be new to you – even better!
A great thanks goes out to all the artist who put a lot of their time and energy into the creation of these tutorials.
Happy painting!
MBP aka Bass.T , 12/04

1

Image by Dylan Cole

2

The Photoshop 7 Paint Engine
Part 1
Defining a custom brush tip shape
by David Nagel
Slap on your smocks and bust out your easels! We're getting down and
dirty with some natural media effects in Photoshop 7's Paint Engine. Yes,
this week we leave the timid realm of compositing for a while and kick
off a new series exploring the sloppy side of digital art.
This new series was prompted, I suppose, by the overwhelming interest in
the Nagel Series 1 Brushes I posted here on DMN a few weeks back. (My
DMN subscribers can access the ad-free version of that story here.)
Rather than answering every single "How'd you do that?" e-mail I've
received on the subject, I thought I'd take the opportunity to walk you
through the process and hopefully teach you some tricks with the
Photoshop 7 Paint Engine along the way.
We begin today with a look at creating custom tip shapes for our paint
brushes. Granted, the tip shapes are just minor details in the overall functionality of the Paint Engine. But they do
constitute the first step along the way of creating your own brushes that can go way beyond those included in the
default Photoshop 7 brush sets.
The basics
The creation of a custom tip shape can be as simple as placing a few dots on the canvas or as complex as
generating recursive tips that build upon the foundation of a basic brush tip shape. For our example today, we'll
look at the method used to create some of the "cloth" shapes used in the Nagel Series 1 Brushes. begin with a fairly
large canvas--say 300 x 300 pixels--so that you can have some maneuvering room for the tip shape creation
process. Then follow these steps.
1. First, define an irregular area on the canvas using the Lasso tool. After you've created the shape, hold down the
Option key and use the Lasso tool to cut into the shape to create something of the effect of creases or gaps.

3

2. Fill the shape with black or dark gray using the Paint Bucket tool. You can use other colors, but keep in mind that
when we actually get to the step of defining our shape as a brush, Photoshop will use luminosity information as
part of the shape's definition. Grays and black are the easiest to work with for this purpose.

3. Choose Select > Feather, and feather the shape by about 15 pixels.

4. Choose Select > Inverse, and then hit your Delete or Backspace key two or three times. This will soften up the
outer edges of our shape, which is essential for this process.

4

5. Do some touch-up work. Go in with your Eraser tool to soften up the inner edges a bit. A well defined shape is
not going to work well for our purposes, so try to create some subtle gradations on the creases, while leaving
others intact. You might also go in with a soft-edged brush and add some black back into the shape.

6. Run a few filters on the current image. I like the Grain filter (Filter > Texture > Grain). I'll run it once with the
"Vertical" setting and once with the "Horizontal" setting. Then I'll apply the Texturizer filter to the image (Filter >
Texture > Texturizer) using the Canvas texture. Apply whatever other filters you think might make for a decent
cloth look.

7. Now choose Edit > Define Brush. When the dialog box pops up, name it "Phase 1," owing to the fact that we're
not done yet. At this stage, you now have a fully functional cloth-like brush.

5

Getting recursive
Now we want to do more with this tip shape, so we'll do a little recursion. There are several ways to accomplish
this, and I'm not going to get to all of them here. I want to save some of this for future installments in this series.
Now, what do I mean by "recursion?" I mean we want to use our "Phase 1" brush as the basis for building a more
interesting tip shape. It's decent in and of itself, but we can certainly create variations with more detail and less of
a pre-defined look.
To begin, save your current document in case you want to work on it more later. Then open up a new, blank
document with transparency. You might want to make this one a little bigger than the first, say 500 x 500 pixels to
give yourself more arbeitsraum.
The first method you can use is to paint on your canvas using the Phase 1 brush. Just draw a few overlapping
strokes, trying to obliterate some of the repetitive details in the process.

When you're done, once again choose Edit > Define Brush, and call it "Phase 2." You'll have a whole new tip shape
based on the first tip shape.
Another method--and one that I much prefer--is to play with Photoshop's dynamics before doing this. I'll give you
three good methods for doing this.
Open up your Brushes palette, and choose "Shape Dynamics." Set "Size Jitter" down to 0%, but crank "Angle Jitter"
up to 100%. Next, go to the Scattering settings in the Brushes palette, and turn on Scattering. Leave it around 90%
to 100%. You don't want to go nuts with this, or your brushes will go off the canvas, and you'll be left with hard
edges. Finally, go to Opacity Jitter in the Brushes palette. If you have a Wacom tablet, turn the jitter to 0%, but set
the control to "Pen Pressure." This will allow you to control the opacity of your stroke with your pen. If you don't
have a tablet, turn the control off, but set the jitter to some value between 50% and 100%.

6

Now position your cursor near the center of your canvas and draw a short stroke.

Notice how the texture in your tip shape is more random? This makes for a much better natural media look. You
might then also go in with a white color on top of the black to bring out some of the detail that can be lost in the
center of the stroke.

7

When you're done, select Edit > Define Brush, and call it "Phase 3." Using this new brush, you can now produce
some pretty decent natural media effects.

Be sure to experiment with these techniques to create other shapes as well.

8

Part 2
Dual brush dynamics
Last time around in our exploration of the Photoshop Paint Engine, we
looked at methods for creating custom brush tip shapes using paint tools
and filters. Now we'll begin a new section covering paint brush dynamics,
a set of features that help to make the Paint Engine in Photoshop 7 far
superior to anything seen in Photoshop previously for creating custom
brushes for emulating "natural" media (as if chemical-based paints were
any more natural than digital paint tools).
Why?
Certainly, you can create custom brush tip shapes in Photoshop 6. But what happens when you apply them to a
canvas? No mater what shape your tip, the stokes come out solid and flat except on the leading edges. There's no
texture and certainly no sense of interacting with the canvas beyond drawing the shape of the stroke. So then to
create nothing more than the "look" of texture, you turn to filters and become even further removed from the
process, at which point you might as well give up on painting. It's all about the process.
But the dynamics in the Photoshop 7 Paint Engine allow you to move beyond this limit.
We'll begin with a brush tip shape designed to look like a small wedge of charcoal. If you'd not care to design your
own to follow along with this tutorial, feel free to download mine here:
http://images.digitalmedianet.com/2002/10_oct/tutorials/pspainteng2021030/NagelCharcoalTip.abr.
Now, if you look at the example below, you'll see that applying the brush in a single dab (the white dot in the
middle) does indeed reveal some of the texture detail of the brush.

9

However, when you draw a stroke with it, the texture is lost, except along the leading edges.

There are several things you can do about this problem using dynamics. But there's only one thing you can do that
doesn't alter the texture, color or shape of your brush tip: the Dual Brush dynamic.
Dual Brush is an option that allows you to intersect a second brush tip shape with your primary brush tip shape.
You can use either your current brush in the dual brush mode or any of the presets currently loaded on your system.
For purposes of this tutorial, we'll simply be using the same brush tip as the primary and dual brush tips in order to
preserve the appearance of the original.
To activate it, simply click on the Dual Brush name in the Brushes palette, and then choose the tip you want to use
as the second brush.
Unfortunately, selecting a dual brush is not all that simple. The Dual Brush preview does not give you the option of
viewing the brush tips with names,, so you'll have to be able to pick out the one you want from a pretty crowded
selection. In my case, I know what the brush tip shape looks like and its diameter, so I'm able to locate it after a
little effort.

10

The default settings (shown above) do not give us much in the way of revealing our brush texture. So we need to
make some adjustments. First, change the spacing to something like 15 percent or so. This will reveal your texture
more or less, depending on the velocity of your stroke. (The example below begins with a slow stroke and then
speeds up.)

Next, adjust the Scatter up to 1000 percent (the maximum). Try the brush with and without the "Both Axes" option
selected. Below you'll see the brush without (left) and with the "Both Axes" option.

11

You can also reduce or enlarge the diameter of the dual brush in order to reveal the texture of the brush in patterns.
Here's I've reduced the dual brush diameter to 10 pixels, creating a dotted effect.

Finally, you can change the "Mode" of the dual brush to create variations. Each one changes the way in which the
underlying dual brush reveals the primary brush. Below, from left to right, you'll see Multiply (default), Darken,
Overlay, Color Dodge, Color Burn, Linear Burn and Hard Mix.

Note that scattering affects the ways in which the blending modes change your brush's appearance, as does the
particular dual brush tip involved. But the most dramatic difference can be seen when adjusting the primary brush
tip's spacing, which you can access in the "Brush Tip Shape" parameter. Bellow are the same examples as above,
but with the primary brush tip's spacing set to 62 percent.

12

So, to recap, we've gone from this:

To this:

simply by adjusting the values in a single parameter in the Photoshop 7 Paint Engine. Not a bad start.

By now you know that Adobe Photoshop isn't just for image manipulation
anymore. Far more than any other release of Photoshop to date, version
7.0 offers artists and designers functional tools for using the program as
a painting application, for emulating "natural media" and for designing
some pretty far-out brushes for creating original works of art. (Did I just
use the phrase "far out?"
Over the last month or so, we've explored Photoshop 7's Paint Engine in some detail, covering some specific
techniques for creating our own custom brushes. These have included techniques for designing brush tip shapes
and also using two brushes at the same time, known in Photoshop parlance as "Dual Brush." (You can find both of
our previous articles on the Photoshop Paint Engine in our Tutorials section on the left.)
The creation of custom brush tip shapes is obviously more a matter of individual talent that merely pushing a few
buttons to achieve an effect. And, in a sense, so is the use of the Dual Brush dynamic, which will often involve the
use of self-created brush tip shapes. But today we begin to look at uses of the more automated dynamics of the
Paint Engine--size, angle and roundness--for creating your own custom brushes.
The Shape dynamic is probably the most important for those of us who use pressure-sensitive tablets. It allows for
the interactive resizing of a brush tip and also provides other shape parameters that can be assigned random values,
numerical values or interactive values based on input from your Wacom tablet.

After you've designed your new brush tip shape, open up the Brushes palette (above) and click on the Shape
Dynamics button to check it. Here's you'll see three "jitter" dynamics: Size, Angle and Roundness. Each one of these
also has sub-settings, which you can use to provide additional controls.
In most cases, you'll want to be able to control the size of the brush tip through your tablet. However, for some
brushes, you might want the jitter to be random or even remain constant. For no jitter, set the percentage to zero.
And for control over the size of the brush, set the control to one of the available options, most likely Pen Pressure
or, if you have a Wacom Intuos tablet, Pen Tilt or Airbrush Wheel. (You can also use Fade, if you don't have a tablet,
which simply evolves a given parameter over a fixed number of steps, as with earlier versions of Photoshop.)

14

But that's fairly obvious. What isn't as obvious is that you can also use jitter in combination with pen pressure or
tilt to vary the size of the brush tip even as you're controlling it with an input device. This means that, as you use
pressure (or tilt), the jitter of the size of the tip will tend toward the size of the stroke indicated by your input
device. More pressure will provide a larger stroke with some jitter on the large side, while less pressure will do the
inverse.

(Note that if you use tilt as the controlling parameter, you can also adjust the "Scale" of the tilt to increase or
decrease Photoshop's tilt sensitivity.
Now, to expand on shape dynamics, you can also add controls for angle and roundness. Roundness determines the
obliqueness of the brush tip and can be controlled in the same ways as size. So, in other words, you can create
random roundness, pressure-controlled roundness or a combination of the two.

And then, probably the most useful of all parameters for emulating natural media, we also have angle jitter. Now,
the angle of your brush tip will be more or less apparent depending on the shape of the tip, of course, but you can
also combine the angle dynamic with roundness for a more natural-looking stroke and a stroke with better
differentiation in directionality.

15

Fortunately, with the angle dynamic, Photoshop 7 gives you two additional control parameters: Direction and Initial
Direction. As their names imply, they allow you to control the angle of the brush by the direction of the stroke,
which is certainly more natural than other methods and also frees up your input device for controlling other
parameters.

Using Initial Direction, Photoshop attempts to determine the angle of your stroke based on your initial input. This
can be hit or miss, particularly with a graphics tablet, as your initial touch on the tablet might be slightly off your
desired angle. But it is useful in particular for calligraphic brushes. And the plain old Direction parameter is useful
for other types of brush effects where you need Photoshop to track the direction of your stroke interactively.
As you saw from the example above, the effect can look somewhat striated, but this is owing to the spacing in the
particular brush stroke I'm using, as well as the size of the brush tip. Both can be modified in the Brush Tip Shape
pane.

16

Roundness settings can also affect the look of an angle-controlled stroke. Below you'll see examples with size,
spacing and roundness altered.

All of the dynamics above are for tightly controlling the appearing of your brush tips and overall strokes. But there
are numerous occasions where tight control is undesirable and accident plays a more important role in the look
you're trying to achieve.

17

Part 4
Working with color dynamics to preserve texture and add depth

It's difficult to say which aspect of Photoshop's Paint Engine is the most
important. Custom brush tip shapes, textures, shape dynamics: They're all
important for creating custom brushes, especially for natural media
emulation. But what do all of these matter if you lose the texture and
shape of your brush when you're painting?
Enter Color dynamics.
Let me give you an example of what I'm talking about. Let's say you go to
the trouble of creating a brush tip that's designed to resemble cloth. You
get it looking just right, apply some shape and dual-brush dynamics to it,
and then start painting. But what happens?
You go from this starting brush:

To this flat painting:

But using Color dynamics with your brush, you can avoid this mess and preserve all or some of your original brush
tip shape.

18

Start by opening up a brush that you've creating using any of our previous tutorials, which you can access by
clicking the Tutorials button on the left. Then open up the Brushes palette, and click on the Color Dynamics option.

Here you'll find a number of settings for modifying the color of your strokes, each one valuable for different
purposes. Each of the "Jitter" settings allows you to modify the color of your stroke. With the
Foreground/Background setting, you can set your strokes to fade between foreground and background colors, and
you can also set the amount of fade to be based upon input from your drawing device (such as a pressure-sensitive
tablet) through pressure, tilt or airbrush wheel. You can also set it to fade over a set number of steps.
Setting the jitter to zero will cause Photoshop to blend between the foreground and background only through your
specified control. Increasing the jitter will through randomness into the blending in addition to any controls you've
set. Or, if you se the controls to "off," you can have a purely random jitter. In the example below, you see the
foreground (red) blending with the background (blue) resulting in purple with a medium amount of pen pressure.

19

The other jitter settings in the Color Dynamics parameters don't allow for any control whatsoever. They're totally
random, with jitter based exclusively on the percentage of jitter you apply. Below you see two examples of Hue
Jitter, the first set to 100 percent, the second at 15 percent. Both allow you to maintain the original texture of your
brush but offer some widely varying results. (Both use red--186,2,2--as the starting color.)

The Saturation Jitter, on the other hand, produces much more painterly results, fading the color from full saturation
to no saturation, as in the example below with a setting of 100 percent.

And finally, the Brightness Jitter setting allows you to alternate between fully saturated shades of your primary
color. The examples below show the jitter at 100 percent and 15 percent, respectively.

20

All of these jitters can be used in conjunction with one another not only to preserve the look and texture of your
custom brush, but also to create a feeling of depth with very few strokes. The following example is a single short
stroke over a white background using a red color. The settings are: Hue Jitter, 6; Saturation Jitter, 67; Brightness
Jitter, 17.

There's one last setting in the Color Dynamics palette called "Purity." This is a setting for moving away from or
toward even RGB values. The default zero purity leaves your colors as they are. Increasing the value leaves the
dominant color alone and decreases the secondary and tertiary values. For example, a color consisting of
255,150,150 will fall off to 255,0,0 at a purity setting of 100 percent, while a setting of -100 percent will give you
a color of 255,255,255. The example below show the original, the 100 percent and the -100 percent Purity values.

Purity can also affect the individual jitter settings by forcing them to conform to a certain range of values.

21

Part 5
Delving into directionality to create 'Spirographic' brushes
This is our fifth exploration into the Paint Engine in
Adobe Photoshop 7. Since so many of the remaining
parameters in this program are self-explanatory, I
thought we'd break away for a while from simple
feature explanations to a more practical look at what
you can do with some of the Paint Engine's dynamics-in this case directionality for creating geometric and
"Spirographic" line effects.
The goal of this particular tutorial is to work with
various directionality settings in Photoshop 7 to create
two sorts of effects: intertwining lines and
"Spirographic" patterns, similar to what you could
produce with a Hasbro Spirograph game. That is,
effects that produce repeating, overlapping lines like
meshes. This needn't be applied simply to lines,
however. You can use this same trick on ore complex
brushes for producing repeating, but shifting patterns
out of any brush tip shape, including images. In the
end, we'll wind up with a paint brush that can
accomplish this effect interactively by simple freehand drawing or through path stroking.
Creating line-effect brushes
Since the goal of this tutorial is to produce brushes that create line effects, we'll begin with the creation of a
single-pixel-wide brush. But, again, you can use any brush tip shape for this process. (Later in this tutorial we'll
look at more "Spirographic" brushes as well.)
Open Photoshop, and create a new document. Switch to the Single-Column Marquee Tool, and click somewhere in
your canvas. Then choose Edit > Stroke. In the dialog that pops up, enter a one-pixel stroke width using black as
the stroke color.

22

Deselect your column (Command-D Macintosh, Control-D Windows), and you should be left with a simple vertical
line.

Now switch to the Paint Brush Tool and then choose Edit > Define Brush. This will use all of the visible pixels in
your image to create a brush tip shape.

Now open up your Brushes palette. The currently selected brush should be the one you just defined. If you try to
use it at this stage, you'll get sort of a scrolling effect. But we want to take this a step farther.

23

So click on the dynamic in the Brushes palette called "Shape Dynamics." Turn everything off, and then switch the
Angle setting to "Direction." (Leave the Jitter at 0.)

Now you can draw with it at this point, but the result isn't too pretty.

24

So, in the Brushes palette, click on the Brush Tip Shape option. Here you can do two things to improve the look of
your brush. First, you can set the spacing to 1,000 percent, which will give your strokes a much more delicate
appearance.

And you can also switch the Diameter down to about half of what you started with to produce lines that use a
stroke less than one pixel wide.

25

And, finally, if you want to cover a wide area with your line-effect brush, you can select the Scattering dynamic.
Set it to "Both Axes," and adjust the amount of scatter to about 400 percent. Set the "Count" to 8 or so. Now when
you draw on your canvas with a couple of curly strokes, you quickly wind up with an image full of web-like,
intersecting lines.

Very nice. But maybe a bit less mesh-like than what you had hoped for. This is owing to the fact that we used a
single-line brush tip shape in our initial brush tip shape creation phase. But we can apply limitless variations to this.
For example, instead of a simple line, we could create an X-shaped brush tip to produce this effect with a single
stroke. (Of course, you'd want Scattering turned off for this.)

26

Or a double-X for this effect.

Getting 'Spirographic'
Get the idea? The more complex the initial brush tip shape, the more complex the geometric effects you can create
quickly. But for even more of a Spirographic effect, create your brush tip shape using circles. You can do this
several ways. The easiest is simply to draw a circle with the circular Marquee tool, and then stroke it, as we did
with our original line brush. Then duplicate this layer to create double or triple intersecting circles.

27

Now, making sure that only the layers containing your circles are visible, choose Edit > Define Brush. And, again,
apply your Brush Tip Shape options to make the circles more delicate, and apply your directionality setting in the
Shape Dynamics parameter. You may or may not want to adjust spacing, but that's up to you.

And you will hopefully wind up with a brush that can create an effect like this.

28

Or this.

Pretty fancy, eh?

29

Working with geometric brushes
Of course, there are multiple ways you can work these sorts of brushes into your production. I think the first set of
brushes we worked on are geared well for freehand drawing. That is, you can scatter them freely to produce
complex, web-like, irregular strokes. The second set, however, seems better geared toward stroking paths, which is
what I've obviously done with the previous two examples.
This is a fairly simple procedure. Save the brush you have created. You can do this in the Brushes palette by
selecting the flyaway menu on the top right and choosing "New Brush." This will save not only your brush tip shape,
but also any dynamics you've applied to it.

Make sure that you then select your newly saved brush in the Brushes palette.
Now create the shape you want to stroke. You can do this semi-freehand using one of the path tools, or you can
load up a shape using one of the Shape tools. If you do use one of the shape tools, make sure the "Paths" option is
selected up in the Tool Options palette, as shown below.

30

Now draw your shape onto your canvas. When you're done, open up the Paths palette, and make sure your path is
selected. Then choose the "Stroke Path" option from the flyaway menu.

When the dialog pops up, choose "Brush" as your stroke, and then hit OK.

Your path will then be stroked using your custom Spirographic brush, and you can go off and impress your friends
and colleagues with the geometric complexity of your work.

31

Painting clouds
I used Photoshop, but any paint program should work.
(Left, cropped from a larger image.)
I start with a ramp like the one on
the right; be careful not to use full
saturation here. Up to your
preference, if you want to make the
background a little more purple.

Start painting with max saturation
and max value a 'peachy' color on a
large default brush (sharp edge,
pressure-sensitive opacity). Quickly
block in the rough shapes where
light would fall on your cloud.
Take special care here (and any time
you're painting something in nature)
to not be too predictable,
symmetrical or regular.
Go down in brush size and do some
more detailed strokes.

32

The shadow color is added, a purple
so dull it's almost gray. Then add
the darker orange/red color
wherever the peach meets the
shadow. Also, normally, clouds will
be brighter at the top so add it at
the base too.

Now the highlight color, a
slightly lighter peach. Use the
finest brush and squiggle it on
wherever there's a left-hand
facing edge of the cloud. Again,
don't be predictable and regular.
We need to soften the righthand side edges of all these
squiggles, while trying to keep
the left sides as sharp as
possible. You can use a small
blur brush, or a smear, or simply
paint back the base color into
the highlight.
Go back and forth, adding more
highlight squiggles, softening
some parts, bringing the shadow
color in with a finer brush too in
some places, etc.

On the right is the finished cloud.

33

Here's a cloud similar to one I saw today, around noon, near the horizon, through my office window. The light is
coming not from the side or above, but about 45 degrees or so. This changes where you need to put the highest
values; instead of at the edge of each blob of cloud the highest value ends up pretty much centered. So a different
technique will be more efficient.

Use a similar ramp to the above,
just a bit lighter.

Create a new layer and paint with a
sharp edged brush a value slightly
lighter and less saturated than the
lightest sky color. Darken it a bit at
the bottom.

Turn on 'Preserve Transparency' for
the layer and paint full white with
the airbrush like this. Vary the
brush size quite a lot. The goal is to
get this kind of 'cauliflower' look.

Then add another layer and paint
with a fully opaque sharp edged
brush the original cloud color, like
on the right.

34

Same thing again, switch on
'Preserve Transparency' and paint
white with the airbrush.

Repeat this cycle until the whole
cloud area is filled up. Remember
to try to get the edges of each layer
a little closer in the beginning, and
more widely spaced towards the
end (due to the perspective).

On the right is the finished cloud,
note that you can tweak it very
easily by using 'Curves' on each
layer. I darkened the first layers,
also changed the coloring a
little. Other tweaks included some
added detail on the bottom layer,
and airbrushing more white here
and there.
Of course instead of the airbrush
you could try this with all sharp
edged brushes, for a more painterly
expressive style.

35

Creating a Spiritual City
Jaime Jasso
Award-winning CG artist Jaime Jasso takes us
through the creation of a superbly-integrated
2D environment made almost entirely from
photographic elements, hand-tweaked and
painstakingly retouched in Photoshop to fit
the scene.
My idea behind this painting was to create a
place where the viewer would feel spiritual
peace, but at the same time have a sense that
the place is dangerous. I made this image by
joining more than 70 photos together with
some 100% painted elements too. All the
elements were heavily edited from the original
to be integrated into the composition because I needed them for a specific purpose.
Admittedly, some of the perspectives in the image appear out-of-whack to our critical eyes, but the focus of this
article is to demonstrate how I worked the composition up to this point, despite the corrections that could be made
to make the composition more physically accurate.
Concept Sketches
The idea was born when a friend of mine
returned from Argentina and gave me this cool
postcard of IguaĂ§u Falls. Inspired by this I
started sketching out this land of waterfalls and
moody jungle. In the first sketch, I considered
including a huge gothic castle connected by
bridges to smaller structures. Then I designed
the look and composition of the image, playing
with the architecture between the waterfalls.
Later, I realized that the scale of the castle was
too big for the falls, because I wanted the landscape to look huge and menacing as well. So I decided to change the
design of the castle for a cluster of smaller temples linked together to build a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;spiritual city'. In my following
sketches I played with mood and color. I decided to use an overcast and mysterious complexion for the composition
instead of a night shot; otherwise I would lose a lot of the detail in the waterfalls, foliage and temples.

36

Composition
The first step was to set
my working resolution. I
chose to work at about
3500 pixels wide, mainly
because I was working
with images from the
Internet.
Reference Gathering
Atmospheric Effects
I looked for real photos to
use as reference to see
how a gloomy and hazy
outdoor
atmosphere
affects the saturation and
shape of elements as they
become more distant.
After studying these
photos, I noticed that
causes faraway shapes to
lose contrast and gain in
brightness. When it came
to working on the image
though, I didn't attempt
to completely render the
faraway elements with
this realistic haziness
because I wanted the shot
clearly defining some of
the distant details. Overall
though, I did try to mimic
this weather as accurately
as in reality except for
one little cheat in the
final image to retain some
of the detail.

37

Architecture
I did a lot of research into the sorts of architecture I was going to work with. Looking to some mosques in
Jerusalem and Turkey I found great references for buildings to make perfectly the architecture I had in mind. I
started a longer search for high resolution photos of mosques and similar architecture. It took me quite a few days
to get all the photos I was going to need.
Waterfalls
In this phase, I also gathered a lot of high-resolution waterfalls photos that I knew I'd need. I found some great
material of the Niagara Falls, and of course IguaĂ§u Falls, that would help me achieve the desired perspective and
feel.
Finally I managed to gather together a collection of over 150 high resolution images from different websites. Now,
how would I use these photos in my image? Where does each belong? And where can each image blend best with
respect to the others?

Compositing â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Natural Environment
I began to create the waterfalls using
almost 20 different photos. I did a lot of
cloning to get the water and falls blend
seamlessly. To get the effect of distance
in the water, I had to scale down some
layers and paint the far distance water
by cloning more water.

38

Once I had the falls done, I began to work on some of the details such as the little foliage islands in the water.
These I manufactured by cloning a small jungle and foliage area in a photo. Later, most of the foliage was
retouched and detailed with extra touches like branches, shadows and special reactions in the area where the
foliage touched the water. Done with this, I had to add the turbulent water buffeting these little foliage islands to
show the water is really being affected by these pieces of land on its way to the falls, completing the integration of
the foliage and water.
Later I created the sky by mixing two layers I found on the net. I desaturated both a little bit and added some
lightness to it, making it clearer and less contrasting. The background mountains were hand-painted. Taking care to
reflect the haze and lightness values of distance, I did the mountain shapes with a solid color that later was
replaced by the correctly-colored gradient. (see image above)
The rear waterfalls where added later, after the city and temples, along some of the steam. It was painted in by
hand to give the effect of a huge amount of water falling and crashing down in to a river that we don't see. (see
image below)

39

Compositing â&#x20AC;&#x201C; City and Temples
I then worked with some of the architecture photos,
and started patching together some composites over
the landscape. The foreground tower was something I
didn't have in the original sketches, but the idea came
out when I was looking for appropriate images on the
Internet and found a special photo that gave me the
idea. I modified the shape and color, and removed the
direct sunshine with its hard shadows from the original
photo, so it would fit in the composite.
The temple at the end of the bridge was entirely handpainted because I never found a photo with the correct
perspective. I took values from other photos I had
composited there to paint it more accurately.
For the middle-ground city I had to be very careful
about what architecture and micro composition I was
going to use. I selected the photos and began to do
experiments to trial structural arrangements in that
area of the image.
There was clear evidence in the image of the
peculiarities of the original photos I used to build this
middle-ground part of the city. I had to make these
buildings blend in with the overall weather. I
desaturated the colors to push back some of the
temples. I then altered the brightness/contrast and
hue/saturation to make them hazier, as they are further
away from the viewer. I also reduced the contrast
where the sun was hiding behind the clouds and added
a lens flare to help me get the buildings integrating
into the haze of the overall atmosphere.

40

I joined together more and more photos to create the background part of the city. I applied the same techniques to
lighten and lower the contrast of these layers. However, I still had to take some steps to better match these images
with their environment. First I painted the highlights, which was very important because the sun light was coming
from the left. Then, in a fresh layer, I painted rough highlights with colors taken from other layers used for the
middle-ground. Later, I set this layer to the blending mode â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Color'. So the highlights layer and base building layers
were now filtered through this color layer that was set to be only partially opaque. Thus, the colors in the whole
image were desaturated as part of the effect of distance.
Compositing â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Foreground Additions and Haze
To give it a more natural and â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;alive' look, I added three flying birds that I took from a photo, with a small amount of
directional blur to convey the effect of motion.
In the original sketches I had a foreground tree, but with the new foreground tower I thought it less necessary. I
still thought I'd put some branches in to frame the image, but not the whole tree. These branches were handpainted, and while it may not be strictly correct, I used a black to brown gradient going down to the thinner
branches. I just wanted to give some translucency to the slender twigs. (see image below)

As the final touch, to give it a generally hazy mood, I added a new layer at the top of my composite that simply had
a white to transparent gradient over it, making the sky and upper elements blend together in the homogenous
weather and atmosphere.
Post-processing
In the post-processing I made a little color correction,
with green being the main color of my palette. I also
added a bit of film grain to give that special
photographic touch.
Final Image
The hand painting and editing used no custom brushes,
and the rest just involved changing opacity, colors,
modes, and resizing. The image was done completely in
Photoshop.

41

Here’s another of Jaime’s works:

42

Digital Matte Painting Using Photoshop
In the past 4-5 years visual effects stopped being something extraordinary and became a part of almost any
production regardless of the scale. Would it be a 100 million dollar Hollywood feature, TV series or an independent
film project, ability to enhance visuals with computer generated imagery (CGI) have become accessible to almost
everyone. In today’s world of money and profit, producer thinks of a cheaper way to achieve something that used to
cost millions. Visual effects come in place when the world we live in cannot provide us with imagery we need or
the cost of recreating certain phenomena would jump over budged.
One of the most important parts in visual effects, and also one of the easiest and cheaper one to do is a matte
painting. Regardless of whether it is painted on a piece of glass or generated on computer it serves one purpose –
creating or extending the virtual space of the scene. As every art, this one has its secrets and cheats. Unlike
traditional art, where “cheating” is considered to be a bad manner, matte painting requires final product to be done
in the most efficient way possible. Don’t be afraid to make shortcuts if they are possible, because time always
works against you.
In this tutorial I will cover a process of enhancing footage to fulfill the needs of story. It all begins with the script
that calls for some change in original footage. After agreeing that the best way to specific shot is to enhance it
digitally, I start to create a concept of how to incorporate these enhancements in original footage. There are many
small details that have to be overlooked for the purpose of a smooth compositing. First I have to think of a camera
movements and composition. In my case, the idea to create a matte painting came before we started filming, so I
didn’t face any problems related with an unexpected change of plans during production.

The story called for a remote location covered with snow for all outside scenes. As the film has mainly interior shots,
we decided not to go to Colorado, but shoot background plates here in California and just paint the snow in. The
example I use here is a test that was done to prove that it would be financially better to make a painting. We shot
a background plate using still camera then replicated lighting conditions on a green screen stage in Ventura,
California for our foreground plates, which had actors and a car in it. We decided not to have any camera
movements to speed up production, because outside shots weren’t important on the bigger scale and had to be
simple.

43

I started with a picture I took in Santa Barbara, a very nice and worm city, were snow is something that people
donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t see very often.

First I had to clean the picture by eliminating all of the unnecessary objects and paint parts of the plate that were
obscured by the removed parts of the picture. This process requires a vision of the final product. Without
understanding what the final image is going to be it is very hard to make decisions on what has to be left. The main
rule I learned while doing matte paintings is that if you can leave specific parts of the picture intact or use a photo
to replace it â&#x20AC;&#x201C; then do so. Nothing will look as realistic as a real life source. For the final touch up, I darkened the
color of the road to add wetness to it.

44

As an empty background color I always use the dominant color for specific painting. In this case it is the color of
the snow â&#x20AC;&#x201C; white. The purpose of this is to being able to visualize your final product in the early stages. In this case
it is also the color of the sky, so I add a little gradient by darkening the horizon line.

Speaking of a horizon line, it is good to make one early on, so you wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have and unexpected perspective artifacts.
This is done finding existing perspective lines (blue) and drawing the line through the point of their intersection
(red) which will be our horizon. After we have established all necessary elements it is time to start painting. The
next step would be to create a ground plane. I painted some free strokes using mainly three shades of snow from
light to dark gray. The idea behind the matte painting is the same as behind impressionistic painting. You just
create an impression, but on close-ups the reality breaks on strokes and colors.

45

As in real world, there canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be any flat colors. Of course there are
exceptions, but the nature is full of texture that mixes colors in a very
organic way. I said before that if you can use photos the use them. I
applied a black and white photo of a grass field on top of the ground
plane to create imperfection in color. To do so, I placed a layer of grass
on top of ground layer in photoshop and overlayed top layer over the
bottom one.
This creates a more dynamic range of shades as well as adds a texture to
the ground plane.

Next step is actually painting snow on our plane. Before doing any matte painting it is always good to do research
on a subject of your painting. In this case it is snow. Snow might seam a very easy subject, but in fact it has a very
interesting nature. Under different weather conditions, snow has different color, shape and interaction with
environment. In my case it hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t snowed for couple days, as well as it is not windy, so the snow is not blowed off
the house.

46

If you look closer you can see the simplicity of technique I used. I projected the snow on every surface as if it was
falling down directly from the sky. I added little imperfections, but the underlying idea is very simple.

.
With a little help of imaginations you can predict which areas would be exposed to the snow in case if the snow
was falling in the straight vertical direction. The ground in front of the house has a little different technique then
the snow on the roof. Again, the method I use for specific areas of this painting is used on research I do. I can’t
stress enough how important to the your “homework”. In the case of the snow in front of the house, I chose areas
that would be physically blended with the underlying ground plane. I assumed that outside temperature is very
close to 0 Celsius. Hence, the areas where the snow is not thick are more “wet” and thus blended with the ground.

47

I used this blending technique on the areas where snow meets ground areas and sometimes on the snow itself to
create uneven texture. Besides snow I added small vegetation, like frozen grass and small bushes. This added more
realism to the flat areas of snow. Another reason for this was to create an atmosphere for this painting. I think that
trees and the way they branch can greatly affect the mood of the scene.
On this picture you can see a relatively simple tree behind the house. This is the first step in changing direction for
this painting. As with snow, I used plain color, after I finished the tree structure, I moved to adding snow with the
same technique I used for the house roof. Since we have a foggy atmosphere, this tree has to be a little lighter. If I
had a plain background with no intention of having something behind this tree I would change the opacity. Rather
then doing it I went to Image->Adjustments->Levels to reduce output black level.

If the background was something other then gray color, I also had to tweak its color palette.

48

Next I would fill out the background plane. I usually create 2-3 trees that I’d scale flip to randomize it a bit.
Depending on the type of a matte painting you have to put different amount of dedication. If the painting will be
slightly out of focus, or the camera will have some movement, I don’t spend much time on background objects, or
on something that doesn’t have viewer’s attention. As with the previous tree I changed output black level to match
the fog depth.

Then I paint the rest of the forest, recycling the trees I used before plus using some photos. I painted some snow on
the fir trees and then put several of those on the background. Final ouch is to make some foreground trees. It’s
good if you can get some photos. I finished them by painting snow and adjusting levels. For these fir trees I didn’t
worry much that they looked duplicated, as I painted snow on individual trees differently.

49

Now, when the painting is done, you can change it to whatever the shot requires you to use it with.

By using simple color correction techniques, I was being able to change the time of day or the mood of this
particular painting.
Here is what I ended up using for production purposes.

50

Matte Painting in Photoshop
Part 1: Maison
This tutorial is actually a "making of" where I explain how I proceeded to achieve this matte painting.
I use a Wacom IntuosÂ˛ A4 board, if you don't have any graphic board this is going to be hard but not impossible.
At each step of the matte painting, useless to remind you to create a new layer so that the work will be easier and
mistakes avoided !
First of all, find a good res
picture. I chose to use a
picture of a house I found
on the web. You can find
very nice pics for free, just
look around !

The first step is to isolate
the house by putting it on
a separate layer and by
erasing the rest. In this
example I used the
polygonal lasso tool for
the house, and a soft
eraser for the bushes.

51

Now you need a new
background. You can
either find a good pic,
either paint one yourself.
I chose the former because
it is less time consuming,
and the result is far better
than what I would have
gotten had I painted a
background myself. I
found this image on the
web, unfortunately I do
not remember the site I
got it from.

Put the sky behind the
house (by putting the sky
layer under the house
layer), and apply a little
perspective effect to give
more depth to the sky,
make it less flat.
Here the house picture
was taken from a low
angle, which makes our
work easier.

Now look at the edges of
the house. They still are
the color of the original
sky. We'll fix that.

52

Using the magic wand tool,
select the empty zone of
the house layer. Then,
Select > Modify > Expand,
to make your selection
wider. Pick a value that
includes the zone we need
to
color
correct.
In the menu : Image >
Adjust > Hue / Saturation
and color correct the
edges by matching them
with the color of the roof.

Still
using
Hue
/
Saturation and also Color
Balance, adjust the colors
of the house and sky
layers so that they
perfectly blend together.

Now we want to get rid of
that palm tree that hides a
part of the house. That
tree has nothing to do
there since we want to
create a morbid mood.

This is probably the most
delicate step because we
have to hand paint the
missing part of the house.
For that I mostly used the
clone stamp tool, tool that
allows you to paint
something using another
part of the picture for
reference.
For instance, the tiles
located between the lower
and middle windows were
painted using similar tiles
of the house, using the
clone stamp tool.

53

Why not add a lightning
bolt to make the scene a
little more disturbing ?
Using the simple non
feathered brush, this is
simple.
Draw
your
lightning, duplicate the
layer, and blur the copies
to make the lightning
glow. Then, use the Dodge
tool to brighten the clouds
from where the lightning
is originating.

Paint dead trees behind
the house, or use existing
ones from pictures. Of
course, make the colors
and luminosity match.

The fun part, now ! Let's
break down the house.
Well, not all of it.
To make it look older, I
added a hole in the rood,
painted with brushes.

54

Don't be afraid to add broken parts ! The house is
supposed to still be standing, so don't go too far.
You can see that I broke a wooden beam, a pipe, a
board, another part of the roof, and a window. When
you break something, use the clone stamp tool to fill in
the empty space you created.

Make it look dirty. First of
all, the windows. I used a
non regular brush and
painted the windows with
a matte color. Then,
change the transfer mode
of the dirt layer to make
sure that dirt and windows
blend nicely together. For
this example I chose the
Luminosity mode.

55

Repeat that step, only do it
on the entire house. Paint
with a dirtier color and set
your layer to Multiply.
Make sure you make joints
and edges look filthy too,
because that's where dirt
appears most. This is one
of the longest steps, but
take your time and don't
mindlessly
add
dirt
everywhere !

Here, the porch, zoomed in.

The last step is to create a
Levels adjustment layer to
get the final contrast of
the matte painting.

56

Matte Painting in Photoshop
Part 2: Snow
This is my second matte painting tutorial. Here I wanted to change the season of a scene from summer to winter.

First of all, find a good res
picture. I chose to use a picture
of a house I found on the web.
You can find very nice pics for
free, just look around !

Alright, first let's modify the
colors. Using Image > Adjust >
Hue / Saturation, try to get softer
colors with less contrasts and
saturation. Make it look cold !

57

Create a new layer
Now we can begin painting the
snow. Use a rough brush to
create irregular shapes. In the
tools window, set the foreground
color to pure white, and the
background color to a bluetinted white which will be used
to add shadows on the snow. All
steps
involve
working
alternatively with these two
colors.
Begin by adding snow on the
edges of the house where the
snow would naturally fall onto.

With the blueish white, paint the
inferior part of the snow (the
shadows). This will add depth and
will simulate the way snow
reacts to light.

Create a new layer
With the same brush and same
white, paint the windows to give
them a frosted look. Set this
layer's transfer mode to Overlay
to make it match.

58

Create a new layer
Same principle, on the roof this
time.
Make sure you stay true to the
original lighting. Parts where the
sun directly hits the roof should
be a lot brighter than the darker
spots, which will blueish. This is
important especially on the cone
shaped parts.When everything
will be painted, you can then use
the Blur tool and make a smooth
transition between pure white
and blueish white. After that, use
the Burn and Dodge tools to
increase or decrease contrasts. If
you use Burn on the blue-tinted
whites, it will give you an ice
look, which can be interesting.

Create a new layer
Now we are going to paint the
ground. I used an irregular brush
so that the grass wasn't entirely
covered. Then using the blueish
color I added nuances to simulate
an undulating look. I also left a
clean way that goes to the door.
Same principle to add snow
applies to the trees and bushes in
the garden.

Now let's do something to avoid
boredom from only adding snow!
Using the Dodge tool, on the
house layer, brighten spots here
and there to add frosted parts, as
well as to lighten up the dark
parts of the house (like the inside
of the porch). Do not forget that
snow is a reflective surface, it
will bounce light off pretty much
everywhere.
Using the same method, brighten
up the rest of the scene like the
trees
and
sky.
Subtle, but necessary since it
adds the important detail that
sells the overall effect and makes the image look natural.

59

Create a new layer
Now on to the extremely boring
step : powder snow over the
trees. Powder is subtle, so don't
overdo it! Still using the same
method, add snow accumulations
on branches, the most difficult
part being to actually see where
those branches are. It depends on
the quality of your picture. If you
have chosen a picture without
trees you are a cheater !!

For the big branches in the
foreground, we can see leaves. I
chose to add snow on groups of
leaves, which can be time
consuming, but you should not
choose the shortest way over
quality work.

Create a new adjustment layer:
Brightness/Contrast
This step is optional, but I
created a layer and have applied
a linear gradient from top to
bottom to increase the contrast
at the bottom of the pic.

60

Matte Painting in Photoshop
Part 3: Castle
Here is the making of my third matte painting, this time it is the Oratoire Saint-Joseph (in Montreal) under the rain!
I use a Wacom IntuosÂ˛ A4 board. For each step of the matte painting, useless to remind you to create a new layer
so that the work will be easier and mistakes avoided!
First of all choose a photograph of
good resolution. I found the
photograph of "l'Oratoire StJoseph" (in MontrĂŠal).

Here is a perfect sky, found on the
Net, which will go very well for
what I want to make.

First of all, start by isolating the
castle by putting it in a layer and by
erasing the original sky. Here I used
the tool polygonal lasso for the
building, and a soft gum for the
foliages.

61

Now one will erase all that should
not be there a few centuries ago, i.e.
the cars, the tourists, the standard
lamps and the barriers. For that, use
the tool Clone Stamp. It is not very
complicated, nor very long with this
example.

I want that this scene occurs in
stormy weather, therefore it is
necessary to erase the shadows
created by the sun.
Always with the Clone Stamp erase
the shadows on the ground of the
shrubs and the trees. With the
Dodge tool erase a little the
contrasts of the elements by
clearing up the zones of shadows in
order to create an ambient light.

Now one can add the Cloud layer
behind that of the castle.

62

One will accentuate the contrast of
the sky while insisting on the clear
zones as if a storm lit the clouds by
the top. For that duplicate the
Cloud layerand pass the copy in
mode Color Dodge.

Now it is necessary to harmonize
the colors of the two elements: sky
and castle. Modify the color of the
castle with menu Image >
Adjustment > Color Balance, and
make your best so that the tone of
colors correspond.

Then select the Castle layer, and in
menu Layer > New Adjustment
Layer choose Color Balance. Thanks
to this adjustment layer which is
created on top of the others, one
will be able to change the general
color. Give a distressing atmosphere
to the scene.

63

Profit finally to obscure the areas
on left of the building with the
Burn tool, because they are not
exposed to the light of the clouds
of right-hand side... hum does it
make any sens LOL? It is a rather
subtle effect, but that brings a
small significant detail.

Here is a zoom to understand better.

Now one will add a little grain to the Castle layer by adding noise.
Before

64

After

One now will add a small detail,
that can be anything, I chose an old
carriage found on google. Place this
layer below the adjustment layer,
thus its color will be automatically
adjusted with that of the scene. If
there are still differences correct
that by going in Color Balance.

Still a thing with the carriage, it is
necessary to give it a shadow. So
select the Castle layer and with the
Burn tool slightly obscure the
ground below the carriage. Subtle
effect but important one.

Here is the result ! Not that bad,
but now I want to add rain.
Obviously for a matte painting
made for a movie the rain would be
created in compositing and
animated. But here it is simply to
make a still image, so we don't care
if the rain remains frozen !

65

Let's work on the rain. Create a new
layer and fill it with black with the
Paint Bucket tool. In menu Filter >
Noise apply Add Noise, choose
Gaussian and Monochromatic, 10
or 15 should suffy for Amount. Go
in Image > Adjustments > Levels
and tweak it to erase some noise
and to make it more visible. Finally
in Filter > Blur apply a Blur Motion,
which simulates a basic rain.

Change the Rain layer mode to
Screen mode in order to blend it in
the scene. Play with the opacity of
the layer to adjust it with your
scene.

Repeat the creation of a second
Rain layer but with a little more
noise to get a denser rain. Lower
the opacity of this second Rain
layer to simulate the rain in the
background.

66

Now one will create large water
drops on the image as if the scene
was seen from behind a window.
Create a new Drops layer filled with
black, add noise.

In menu Filter > Pixelate choose
Crystallize in order to obtain large
crystals of noise instead of the
small points.

Adjust the number of crystals in
menu Levels.

67

Then apply the Filter effect >
Stylize > Glowing Edges, which will
create circles around each crystal. It
looks more like water drops now.

Here the result which I obtained
with this method.

Now change the layer mode to
Color Dodge, which will make the
drops less visible in dark areas of
the scene.
We leave for the moment the drops
like that, we'll return there at the
end.

68

Here we'll create reflexions on the
wet ground. Start by duplicating
the Castle layer and Clouds layer
and merge them together. Now in
Edit > Transform choose Vertical
Flip to reverse the Reflexions layer.
Move it so that the bottom of the
stairs is the line of symmetry.
Finally you can cut out this layer so
that it is only visible on the
principal alley of the castle.

Change this layer mode to Darken
and opacity to 30%.

Here is the very light reflexion but
which brings a small key of realism.

69

Finally I added the filter Filter>
Distort > Glass in order to scramble
the reflexion a little. It is not really
essential, but if one wants to look
more closely at the image we'll see
that water disturbs the reflexion.

Now do the same with the carriage !

We return to our water drops! For
this final effect it is necessary to
flatten all the layers of the scene,
so make a copy of your file and
choose Layer > Flatten Image. The
image is now made of one single
layer, we will be able to apply
effects to the whole image now. In
menu Filter choose Liquify. Click on
the Bloat tool in the toolbar on the
left of the Liquify window. Setup
your brush radius and its density
and paint on each drop in order to
simulate an effect of diffraction. It
is not very easy at the beginning so
do not hesitate to start again as
many time as you want.

70

Once that you made all the drops
you can also create water trails
behind the drops which run along
the window. I used a mix of several
tools of the Liquify module like
Forward Warp or Turbulence. Leave
Liquify. Finally we will accentuate
the light and dark areas of the
drops by painting with the tools
Dodge and Burn. This water drops
effect is oviously not essential, but
in fact I especially wanted to test it.

So hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the final result:

71

Modern Ruins
By Tocath
How to turn a modern day city into decaying ruins.
Part 1 : Overview
This tutorial will show you the steps and tricks I used in turning Hong Kong harbor into a wasted reflection of itself.
Basically, we're going to turn this:

Let's begin!

72

Into this:

Part 2: Planning
Any photoshopped image must start with a great source. Ruins are no exception. For my H2H with Norrit, we were
limited to Non-American, Non-European cities. I chose Hong Kong. Ideally, you want a city with a recognizable
landmark or building. This can get tricky, as your contest may have 18 New York entries and 20 from Paris. So, be
aware that whatever city you choose may be duplicated. Impirnt your own style on whatever city you choose.
After selecting a city, find a picture that displays a good view of the features you want to destroy. I would suggest
using only images greater than 1024x768 in size. Using a tiny source image for this contest will make things very
difficult when it comes time to put in detail.

Here is our source image, a small crop for tutorial purposes:

Let's talk for a moment about the source pictures for our
destruction. I can almost guarantee you that typing "ruins" into
Google will get you nothing better than the Parthenon or the
Pyramids. While these are certainly ruins, they don't offer much
help to those of us who have to ruin modern buildings. Modern
materials require modern ruins. So, here is a quick list of words
that will bring us modern destruction:
•
•
•
•
•

bombed
bombed out
destroyed
gutted
rubble

It also helps to know your geopolitics. These words brought me
the most useful images:

•
•
•
•
•
•

Belgrade
Grozny
Kosovo
Lebanon
Sarejevo
WTC

I used 24 different images of rubble and destruction in my Hong Kong image. You don't need nearly that many, but
you'll be happier with a greater variety to work from.

73

We're almost ready to start butchering our buildings. First
though, I find it helpful to have some organization. My final
Photoshop file was over 50 layers deep, and I would have been
lost had I not given the buildings names, like this:

You can see that I only know the real name for one building. It
doesn't matter, just as long as you can remember it.
Part 3: Preparation
Let's start destroying!
The first thing is to identify areas where you will be taking large
chunks out of the building:

Create a new layer. Set the Clone tool to "Use all Layers" and
clone the sky and ground to create what we would see if a piece
of the building wasn't there. Notice that the sky behind the
Bank of China building isn't perfect. For this building, I was
aware that I would be putting some rubble over that, so I didn't
spend a ton of time getting it just right. You only need a nice
backdrop to work from.

74

Part 4: Bash
Creating the destruction and rubble is perhaps the most time consuming bit of work.
The first thing I'll show you is creating false structure. This is not always necessary, but it can add a sense of
realism. Let's create some struts for the Bank of China building. I came across a picture on the net of this building
under construction, so I have a good idea of what the insides looked like.
Grab a rubble pick to make our
struts. This'll do:

Then, cloning from the rubble, create strips. These are the floors
of the building. Copy these until you have a good amount, then
rotate and place over the Bank like so:
Pay close attention to the angles when creating false structure.
You want it to match as closely as possible to the angle of the
building.
Next, eliminate a portion of the struts. This is where you get to
be creative. Try to think as you are doing it what consequences
your actions have. If you erase a floor here, the mass from the
floor must have fallen somewhere, right? Maybe it took out a
floor below. Maybe it just landed on the floor below, depositing
rubble. Be creative, but don't be completely random. It's an
interesting balancing act between chaos and structure.

75

Part 5: Bash continued
Now that you've created any false structure necessary, lets get to the real chaos.
Open your rubble images, say,
these three:
Now this next part will be much
easier if you have a tablet. A
tablet's best feature is the ability
to sense pressure. If you have a
tablet, set your clone brush to
"Shape Dynamics" with the Size
jitter controled by the pen
pressure. This will let you make
very thin, light strokes. If you
don't have a tablet, that's ok.
Simply control the size of your
brush by tapping quickly on the
bracket keys. [ = decrease brush
size, ] = increase brush size.

76

Ok, create a new layer and clone some chaos from your rubble
pile, like this:
Use varying widths of stroke to create areas of light and
darkness. Pay close attention to your shadows. You need to be
aware of where the light in your scene is coming from, and
where it will cast the shadows. In my scene, as in most, the light
comes from above. Notice that in areas where surviving
structure overhangs destroyed buildings, I have added shadows.
I prefer to use cloned shadow area instead of simply painting
black or using the burn tool. Using cloned shadow from a rubble
pile will give you a more realistic effect.
Continue cloning until you have something like this:

Create new layers for each building, or set of buildings. This will
help you control what you see, and will avoid destroying detail
you have worked hard on.
Try to pick a different source rubble pic for each building. Even
before you start cloning, it can be helpful to adjust the hue and
saturation on the rubble pic to more closely match the building
you're destroying.
Note also that I took some liberties with the actual look of the
brick building as well as the short and busted. If you need to
make adjustments to allow for more destruction, do so. This is
your image. Who knows what kind of upgrades the buildings
have had!

77

Part 6: Trash
Now that we have destroyed some facades and collapsed floors, lets add an element of age. The first thing to
remember is that destruction is dirty. Clouds of dust in the air, acid rain and soot can make a place look absolutely
filthy. Let's throw some on!
I like to apply dirt and grime on a new layer, set to 'multiply' or
'darken' blend mode. Eyedrop a shadow color from your building.
It's best to use this method instead of straight black, since the
eyedrop will pick up on any hue present. Create a new layer and
paint thin strips of color on and around ledges. Next, use the
smudge tool to grab that color and smear it down, simulating
the effect of rain carrying particles downward. You should come
up with something like this:
After you've done that, I like to apply some nice color to get a
rust and soot effect. For my Hong Kong pic, I used a sheet of
paper with coffee and tea stains. A texture like this will have
lots of great detail that will further grime up the image. Select a
few buildings and paste it over like this:

78

Selectively erase in areas and get rid of anything that is jarring.
Then, set the new texture layer to 'color burn', and drag the
opacity down just a bit until it looks good, like so:
Part 7: Trash continued
Next, we want to simulate some oxidization and salt deposits
from rain and sea. Grab a new texture pic. For mine, I used an
image of white paint cracking on a wooden fence. Again, create
a new layer and paste in the texture, like so:

79

Erase any detail you don't want and set the layer's blend mode
to 'soft light'. Decrease the opacity until you're happy with it.
This should leave your building looking like this:

Next, we're going to work on the water. First off, realize that
any boats in the water may be sunk, or sitting lower. Raise the
water level so that the boat appears to be taking on water.
Additionally, remove any white water that exists. Your boat is
not moving, and should not be creating a wake. Next, select a
brownish color and paint some detail onto the water itself. Set
the layer to darken mode to achieve this:

80

Next, you're going to want to add some rust and age to the boat.
Grab a new texture map. I used the paper with the coffee stains.
Paste that over the boat and erase any unwanted detail. Set the
layer at 'color burn' and decrease the opacity to arrive at this:
Part 8: Finishing up
You're almost done. We've got a good image, but we want to
bring it all together with some post-effects.
Use ctrl+shift+c to copy the entire image merged, or go to 'Edit
>> Copy Merged'. Paste this at the top of your layers list.
The first thing we want to adjust is saturation. Crank down the
saturation about 25% to simulate a somewhat overcast day:

81

Next, we want to make the image a bit more contrasty. I prefer
to use 'Image >> Adjustments >> Selective color'. Using
'Brightness and Contrast' can affect saturation, and we don't
want that. Selectively darken the blacks first, adding 5%. Next,
edit the Neutrals, taking out 10% black. Additionally, for my
image, I corrected a slight blue cast by taking out 3% cyan and
adding 3% yellow. You should arrive at something like this:
Finally, to give the entire image a sense of cohesiveness, and
further add to the grimy feel, use 'Filters >> Sharpen' and
'Filters >> Noise' to sharpen the image and add a little noise.
Don't go overboard, use sparingly to add some dirt. Do a final
once over, selectively desaturating anything that pops too much.

You've now got a finished product:

82

Matte Painting: Mystic Night Scene
We will be creating an mystic night scene with rainy atmosphere. Few preprations are required before you start.
First basic step is a concept and where will be the matte paint used? Always start with rough thumbnails. Bring
down your thoughts on paper. Scan it if needed.Try to colour them roughly with simple patches of colours
considering the atmosphere you want. Once you are happy with the result its time to finalize!
Before we start our final work we need to collect refrences and high resolution images. Refrences and image library
is very important. Dont just look for sources on the net but also from books, photographs or click some good snaps
yourself.
This the final matte. Before I start I normally divide my page, if the matte has to be fully generated on the
computer. Normally horizon line should be off center so that it dose not divide the picture into 2 parts.

Step 1

I start colouring the water first with an airbrush with an textured brush so that it gives me no sharp edges.
everything should be smooth. Opacity of the brush is 50%. This gives me overall idea of the placements.
Step 2

Now in a new layer above the water layer I start adding details. some mountains foreground mountains dark and
background ones light. some debris floating on thewater or some small plants.

83

Step 3

Now here I start adding details on the right side of the scene. I have merged hand painted mountains with some
photographs.
Step 4

I continue adding details with some more photographs of rock and painting over for the desired effect. Finally we
get the basic layer of the matte. now we need some depth and more details! It's time for some rainy clouds.
Step 5

Ok, now you must be wondering how did I get this? yes, its again merging of photographsand and hand painted
clouds equally. Eraser, air brush and rubberstamp are the main tools I used here.
Step 6

Ok, now I place the cloud layer over sea layer. Slightly overlapped at the edge ofhorizon so we get smooth
blending! :) I know you still see the unfinished edgesbut dont worry we will fix it ahead.

84

Step 7

To create some more interest, I added an tower like mountain. and painted itdark blue. Also, some extension of the
picture is done with help of some snapsand I hand painted over the rocks a bit.
Step 8

The final desired effect I need was something blue and mono colour feel with different tonal value. so firstly I
converted the step 7 picture to black and whitegradient map and then I played around with colour balance and
variation tool.Finally we are done to composite this shot.
Tips:A. Keep all the pictures or references or ur painted layers in different sets in the layer tool-box. name the sets
clouds, ground, mountains etc. so its easy tonavigate when it comes to the point of some changes in the picture. B.
If you plan to animate it in after effects, with some subtle cloud movements, thenbe carefully you dont merge the
layers into one.

85

The Haunted House
Daniele Montella, 7 December 2004
The Haunted House was developed during Halloween, when I wanted to express the idea of an eerie-looking house.
Matte painting has always fascinated me, and with the help of digital tools today, it is possible to enrich
environments more easily than ever before.
Study of the Image
The general process employed for this image is to use photographic elements, combine them and enhance them in
original ways. My intention was to express anxiety, isolation and the frustration felt during a horror movie. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
a clichĂŠ in these movies where a group of friends stand in front of a haunted mansion in awe. The main details of
the haunted house required: dry and twisted trees, a cloudy dark sky that created the most horrible feeling of
isolation and different types of gravestones. I used these photographic elements with the intention to modify and
enhance them later on.

86

Composition
To compose my collage of images, I use the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Rule of Thirdsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; which is a photographic composition dividing the space
into 9 identical pieces on a grid (thirds). I insert the house on the right third and a twisted tree on the left third. In
terms of depth, the image is divided into four planes of depth. The closest is on the twisted tree to the left, then the
gravestones, the tree on the right, and the house almost in the background. This way, your eye is moved around the
image in an anti-clockwise direction for a dizzying effect.

Tone and Colour
The house is neglected by humans and infested by ghosts. To portray this, I opted for a green-yellow tone, which is
associated with illness. It is the colour of decomposing human skin, urine, mucus and many other repulsive things.

Using the Brightness/Contrast settings in Corel PhotoPaint, and tweaking the tone curve, I was able to totally
change the original photograph (which was in broad daylight) to a washed-out house that looked like it was
photographed on an overcast, rainy day. I recovered a bit of colour by using the Hue/Saturation settings to make
the house a slight green-yellow colour.

87

Painting
Once the total view of the composition was in place, I begin painting the missing details and adjusting the existing
ones. This is the most complex and time-consuming part of the project. Starting with the house, I repainted entire
portions of it such as replacing the stairs, removing the lush green foliage and replacing it with dead or dying
shrubs.

88

Then I began to â&#x20AC;&#x153;ruinâ&#x20AC;? the house and give it a sense of weathering over time by staining it. First with a light black
brush using the Colour Burn filter and then digging holes in the walls and roof where I painted rotten and
destroyed wooden boards. I also extended parts of the veranda and roof by hand-painting them in.

I managed to find images of dirty trees that I cloned to create the background forest behind the house. This,
however, didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t work that well to begin with because it looked totally flat. With a grey colour and a thin brush, I
painted branches and trunks in with differing tones of grey to give a sense of depth to the forest. I also did the
same with the plants, bushes and shrubs surrounding the house.

89

Returning to the two main trees in the foreground, I used the Clone tool to paint in more branches using the
texture from the original image.

For the gravestones, I employed similar techniques used on the house to give them a weathered look, and also
painted in two new ones. For additional effect, I painted the shadows of the tree branches on the ground and
gravestones.

90

Effects
This is where I begin enhancing the basic image. Using the Effect Tool/Custom Sharpen feature in Photo Paint, I
begin to sharpen portions that I have just painted in, such as the broken wooden boards, the branches, bushes and
twigs.

To make the image more interesting, I made one of the windows in the house light up by hand painting the effect
with a light yellow. To create the glow of the light, I used a soft circle brush to paint the area on a new layer, with
a much lighter yellow (almost white) with no transparency, but the layer mode set to â&#x20AC;&#x153;Addâ&#x20AC;?.

91

The sky is the result of many tests using green to grey colours and a big brush. Details such as the clouds were
painted in using a thinner brush and setting some brushes to Colour Dodge and Colour Burn modes.

Final Image
The final image is a pseudo-photo-real haunted mansion, employing clever digital techniques and photographic
elements!